Cincinnati Reds Spring Training Game Review – 3/9/18

The Cincinnati Reds beat the Texas Rangers on Friday night in Goodyear. They got good pitching early on and the bullpen held on for the win. You can see the entire box score here.

Anthony DeSclafani got the start and pitched well. He allowed a hit and a walk in 3.0 shutout innings with a strikeout. The Reds broadcasters were concerned about his velocity, noting that he didn’t touch 90 in the first inning, touched 90-91 a few times in the second and then was 86-89 in the third. Later in the game Marty Brennaman noted on the air that Dick Williams came into the radio booth to tell them that the stadium scoreboard gun was not accurate and was 3-4 MPH slow.

Brennaman, then basically questioned how truthful that statement was because, and I’m paraphrasing here “from where we were sitting it didn’t look it”. Weird to basically say on the air that you believe the General Manager and President of Baseball Operations just lied to you, but I guess Marty is going to Marty. Worth noting that after his outing, DeSclafani told C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic that he “felt good”.

Tyler Mahle followed up with three quality innings of his own. The 23-year-old righty allowed a run in 3.0 innings with no walks, one hit allowed, and two strikeouts. Cody Reed tossed a shutout inning in the 7th. Oliver Perez struggled again, allowing a 2-run home run in 0.2 innings of work. Austin Brice finished out the 8th inning before returning for the 9th where he completed 1.1 perfect frames with two strikeouts. Brice has quietly been strong this spring – he lowered his ERA to 2.08 in 4.1 innings with no walks and four strikeouts.

The offense was led by Eugenio Suarez, went went 2-3 with two home runs and three runs batted in. Tucker Barnhart also went 2-3 with two runs batted in – both of which came when he smacked his third home run of the spring. Adam Duvall went 1-3. Among the replacements only Sebastian Elizalde had a hit, going 1-1. Billy Hamilton went 0-2 and is still hitless on the spring. But he did draw his 5th walk of the spring against just six strikeouts.

About The Author

Doug Gray is the owner and operator of this website and has been running it since 2006 in one variation or another. You can follow him on twitter @dougdirt24, contact him via email here or follow the site on Facebook. and Youtube.

17 Responses

Mahle just keeps on rolling, very impressive. It’s a good thing Saturday nights game is on TV, because according to Mark Sheldon, Nick Senzel is going to be leading off and playing shortstop. Could be a view into the not to distant future, maybe just a few months. It would definitely solve the lead off problem.

Like your thinking as the Reds better not give their new SS, Peraza, very much rope especially with Senzel in the wings. Pereza kicked a ball tonight that a good defensive SS, like Senzel is going to be, would make easily. Watch Senzel go to AAA and hopefully start at SS and hit lead off. Senzel’s going to be a good one so Peraza has about 2 months to show what he can do and if he doesn’t get it done it will be the Senzel show.

Desclafani’s velocity still worries me a bit even if the board at 3-4 off. If he was throwing 86-89 in the 3rd and it was off by the high end of William’s statement of 3-4, that’s still 90-93mph… for a pitcher who’s fastball *averaged* 92.9mph in 2016. That’s still a decent loss of velocity, and that’s going by William’s high end number. If you go by the low number, it’s a significant loss.

I guess we will see if it’s an issue later. If he is healthy and can keep getting guys out like he did today, he can pitch 85 for all I care.

I don’t how much Disco threw before spring training, but he could just be going through the dead arm period that a lot of pitchers go though during the later half of spring training. But if says he feels good and is healthy, that”s all that matters at this point.

That always irritates me too.Unfortunately Peraza isn’t the only one who does that kind of thing on this team.Part of that has to do with coaching as well. I know my old high school players knew to be taking the first strike in that situation. It is disappointing.

As an old Browns fan, yes I did watch their last NFL Championship win on tv in 1964, I can tell you changing GMs and coursein the middle of a rebuild does not work. Get good people and stick with them is far better than starting over every couple of years like my Browns have done. We can see their success here lately.

And Dick Williams has literally been in charge of making decision for the Reds for one full season. This is only his second season where he’s been the main decision maker. Probably a tad early to say he needs to go….

I’m betting that by the break we see Finnegan or Disco traded (determined by who’s pitching better at that point). Both have a few affordable years left and would be attractive to a contender as well as a club in rebuild. That will clear a path for who ever looses out for the 5th spot and brings a top 100 prospect or two in return. Controllable MLB proven pitchers = nice return.

I’m worried about the readiness of Disco and Finnegan. I would feel better if someone said they were told to break it in slowly. I’m rooting for Garrett and Stephenson to make it. If they make it, its a good sign for the rebuild to say the least.

Copyright RedsMinorLeagues.com. All Rights Reserved. RedsMinorLeagues.com is an independent news source and is not affiliated with the Cincinnati Reds, Major League Baseball, any of the Cincinnati Reds minor league affiliates or Minor League Baseball.